Things learned at our first family gathering
Rivka was funny.
Was worried about her kids all the time, as Anya's father and grandfather worry and wanted to be updated on their whereabouts.
Was known for her cooking, never used recipes and was very competitive when it came to others praising someone else's cooking. Wanted to be know as the best cook, and generally it was so. On many occasions she cooked for large number of people. Was messy in the kitchen as Anya's grandfather was. He liked to cook on Saturday's and would make a big mess, which made his wife very upset at him.
Sherri and Harriet told us a story of how they were trying to record Rivka's recipes by following her. After she would put the ingredients in, they would measure the amounts and record it. Sherri brought a pastry to the party that Rivka made. Sherri tried to make a dish using one of the written down recipes and it called for six cups of water. When the outcome was not as expected and she called her grandmother to find out what she did wrong, she was surprised to learn that cup in Rivka's methodology meant not the standard measuring cup but a cup leftover from a jewish memorial candle. She had a lot of those sitting around, so she often used it for measuring.
She saved all the food leftovers. She made a mean crumb cake. Rivka talked about having to survive in the woods after running away from pogroms during WWI, she was always against any food being wasted. As a tradition she used to take grandchildren to Morrison's cafeteria and her rule was that they could get anything they wanted as long as they finished what they got. Sherri used to get only deserts and that was just fine with Rivka.
She never drove. After Joe died she stayed by herself in the big house.
In the dining room of the big Levin house Kosher was kept. At one time they ordered a wall paper that had a repeating food print on it. When the paper came in, to their surprise one of the items on the food collage was bacon. They told their kids that it was beef.
Rivka was called "Bubby" grandma in Yiddish, and Joe was called "Zeidi" - grandpa in Yiddish. They spoke Yiddish to each other, but wanted the kids to speak English, so they spoke English to them. Both still had accents by the time they died.
Rivka was never sick. When she finally had to visit hospital as cancer was onsetting and the doctor asked her, "When did you last visit a hospital", she answered "when I was born".
When Rivka and her sister came they first visited Netherlands and London. They came through Ellis Island but were not let into the country immediately. According to Zena, Rivka said that it was something about Sheina's eyes that kept the immigration officials from letting them in. Perhaps they worried about some desease that could be detected by looking in her pupils. I think hypotitus can be detected this way. But after waiting at least several days, she was finally let through.
We also learned that they had a cousin in the south that sponsored their coming ot America. One of the cousin's daughters is still alive in South Carolina we think. Need to follow through with Sherri.
We learned that Joe had a brother. As Joe was about to marry Rivka who he met on his "find a new wife" trip to Chicago, his brother warned him that she is only marrying him for his money. Joe broke all relations with the brother and never spoke to him again. Joanne told us that at some point after her father died at a bar mitzva for one of her children Rivka informed her that one of her cousins from Atlanta will come. Joanne was surpised, as she did not know about any cousins in Atlanta, and Rivka said that this is the brother of Joe's that he would not want them to contact. This story reminded me of the way Gershko left his first wife after her parents made antisemitic remarks, calling her a "Sarah". This was considered an antisemitic remark in Russian culture.
Iris told us that after Joe died and Rivka lived by herself she was very light on her feet. Iris and her husband would invite her out and she would almost always accept. Iris talked to her several times a day. Rivka liked to watch "Saturday Night Live" and would dicuss it afterwards with Iris.
Iris helped her prepare for the citizenship exam that she took in the 1961.
The photographer who took all of family photos and event photos lived nearby and his daugher Shelly is now wife of Steven, Zena's son. She told us that her father sold off the business and that one of the new owners has all the negatives. His name was Gerald Pollack. We thought early on that he could be one of our links to the family, since his name was stamped on the few photos we had. We could not locate him in the phone book or internet. He was a very prominent Savannah photographer, especially in the Jewish community.
Joe had a store that served mainly african american community selling to a lot of railroad workers, shipyard workers and sailors. He and Rivka were known as Mr and Mrs Joe. They were well respected by the blacks in the community. He knew a lot of the conductors on the trains and used to send packages up north this way.
Rivka also sent food packages by Greyhound bus to Swainsboro where Harriet and her family lived.
Swainsboro was not a place with a lot of Jews, so Harriet encountered a lot of prejudice in school as the first Jewish student there.
We called Iris exactly 16 years after Rivka, her mom died (using Jewish calendar).
At one point Joanne mentioned that her son was born in June and Anya followed by asking on what date. I knew what the answer would be, she said 6, which is Anya's birthday too. I knew it would be 6 because so much of this story is too strange to believe that there are no coincidences and I almost expect things to fall in place.
Joe Levin changed his name from Levinovich when he came to America from Joe Levine later on in his business career, because there was a man not paying his bills by the same name and he wanted to avoid confusion. The name Levin pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable.
Rivka was described to have never met a stranger. This is precisely the way Anya's grandfather was described by Vadim.
Was worried about her kids all the time, as Anya's father and grandfather worry and wanted to be updated on their whereabouts.
Was known for her cooking, never used recipes and was very competitive when it came to others praising someone else's cooking. Wanted to be know as the best cook, and generally it was so. On many occasions she cooked for large number of people. Was messy in the kitchen as Anya's grandfather was. He liked to cook on Saturday's and would make a big mess, which made his wife very upset at him.
Sherri and Harriet told us a story of how they were trying to record Rivka's recipes by following her. After she would put the ingredients in, they would measure the amounts and record it. Sherri brought a pastry to the party that Rivka made. Sherri tried to make a dish using one of the written down recipes and it called for six cups of water. When the outcome was not as expected and she called her grandmother to find out what she did wrong, she was surprised to learn that cup in Rivka's methodology meant not the standard measuring cup but a cup leftover from a jewish memorial candle. She had a lot of those sitting around, so she often used it for measuring.
She saved all the food leftovers. She made a mean crumb cake. Rivka talked about having to survive in the woods after running away from pogroms during WWI, she was always against any food being wasted. As a tradition she used to take grandchildren to Morrison's cafeteria and her rule was that they could get anything they wanted as long as they finished what they got. Sherri used to get only deserts and that was just fine with Rivka.
She never drove. After Joe died she stayed by herself in the big house.
In the dining room of the big Levin house Kosher was kept. At one time they ordered a wall paper that had a repeating food print on it. When the paper came in, to their surprise one of the items on the food collage was bacon. They told their kids that it was beef.
Rivka was called "Bubby" grandma in Yiddish, and Joe was called "Zeidi" - grandpa in Yiddish. They spoke Yiddish to each other, but wanted the kids to speak English, so they spoke English to them. Both still had accents by the time they died.
Rivka was never sick. When she finally had to visit hospital as cancer was onsetting and the doctor asked her, "When did you last visit a hospital", she answered "when I was born".
When Rivka and her sister came they first visited Netherlands and London. They came through Ellis Island but were not let into the country immediately. According to Zena, Rivka said that it was something about Sheina's eyes that kept the immigration officials from letting them in. Perhaps they worried about some desease that could be detected by looking in her pupils. I think hypotitus can be detected this way. But after waiting at least several days, she was finally let through.
We also learned that they had a cousin in the south that sponsored their coming ot America. One of the cousin's daughters is still alive in South Carolina we think. Need to follow through with Sherri.
We learned that Joe had a brother. As Joe was about to marry Rivka who he met on his "find a new wife" trip to Chicago, his brother warned him that she is only marrying him for his money. Joe broke all relations with the brother and never spoke to him again. Joanne told us that at some point after her father died at a bar mitzva for one of her children Rivka informed her that one of her cousins from Atlanta will come. Joanne was surpised, as she did not know about any cousins in Atlanta, and Rivka said that this is the brother of Joe's that he would not want them to contact. This story reminded me of the way Gershko left his first wife after her parents made antisemitic remarks, calling her a "Sarah". This was considered an antisemitic remark in Russian culture.
Iris told us that after Joe died and Rivka lived by herself she was very light on her feet. Iris and her husband would invite her out and she would almost always accept. Iris talked to her several times a day. Rivka liked to watch "Saturday Night Live" and would dicuss it afterwards with Iris.
Iris helped her prepare for the citizenship exam that she took in the 1961.
The photographer who took all of family photos and event photos lived nearby and his daugher Shelly is now wife of Steven, Zena's son. She told us that her father sold off the business and that one of the new owners has all the negatives. His name was Gerald Pollack. We thought early on that he could be one of our links to the family, since his name was stamped on the few photos we had. We could not locate him in the phone book or internet. He was a very prominent Savannah photographer, especially in the Jewish community.
Joe had a store that served mainly african american community selling to a lot of railroad workers, shipyard workers and sailors. He and Rivka were known as Mr and Mrs Joe. They were well respected by the blacks in the community. He knew a lot of the conductors on the trains and used to send packages up north this way.
Rivka also sent food packages by Greyhound bus to Swainsboro where Harriet and her family lived.
Swainsboro was not a place with a lot of Jews, so Harriet encountered a lot of prejudice in school as the first Jewish student there.
We called Iris exactly 16 years after Rivka, her mom died (using Jewish calendar).
At one point Joanne mentioned that her son was born in June and Anya followed by asking on what date. I knew what the answer would be, she said 6, which is Anya's birthday too. I knew it would be 6 because so much of this story is too strange to believe that there are no coincidences and I almost expect things to fall in place.
Joe Levin changed his name from Levinovich when he came to America from Joe Levine later on in his business career, because there was a man not paying his bills by the same name and he wanted to avoid confusion. The name Levin pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable.
Rivka was described to have never met a stranger. This is precisely the way Anya's grandfather was described by Vadim.
posted by mg | 9:52 AM
1 Comments:
Hi,
I have LEVINOVICH among my ancestors.
They lived in Latvia.
Sincerely
Christine Usdin
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